Sidney Poitier Tributes Pour in From Hollywood: ‘What a Landmark Actor’
Sidney Poitier is being remembered Friday as “an absolute legend” — and so much more — in (and by) the Hollywood acting community.
“What a landmark actor. One of a kind,” Jeffrey Wright, the star of HBO’s “Westworld,” posted in his Twitter tribute. “What a beautiful, gracious, warm, genuinely regal man.”
“He showed us how to reach for the stars,” Whoopi Goldberg wrote.
“Icon. Iconoclast. Barrier breaker. Pioneer. Hero. Legend. All time great,” Josh Gad tweeted. “Goodbye to one of the most important and extraordinary Actors in the history of our industry. Thank you for shattering glass ceilings and paving new roads.”
We’ve compiled some of these earliest reactions from Hollywood below and will update with more as they roll in.
Poitier, the pioneering actor and director who became the first bankable Black leading man in Hollywood, died at age 94, according to the Bahamian Minister of Foreign Affairs. Poitier, who was born in the U.S. but grew up in the Bahamas, broke multiple racial barriers in his decades-long career, including when he became the first Black actor to win the Academy Award, for his role in 1963’s “Lilies of the Field.”
Hollywood stars are celebrating his work in films such as “In the Heat of the Night” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” both Best Picture nominees from 1967.
“One of the greatest actors of all time. His ‘In The Heat Of The Night’ will always be on my top 10 film list. His line, ‘They call me Mr. Tibbs!’ heralded in Black Power in a definitive, permanent way. It sends a thrill through my bones every time I see it,” Stevie Van Zandt said in a tweet.
But the Bahamian actor also had a presence across Hollywood, serving as a former Walt Disney Co. board member and earning a tribute from Bob Iger on Friday.
“Sidney Poitier was the most dignified man I’ve ever met. Towering…gentle…passionate…bold…kind…altogether special,” Iger wrote.
From his first film performance, playing a doctor who treats a bigoted white man in 1950’s “No Way Out,” he blazed a trail by refusing to play roles that traded on racial stereotypes. He followed his debut film by playing a minister in 1951’s “Cry, the Beloved Country,” set in apartheid-era South Africa, and then an angsty high schooler in 1954’s “The Blackboard Jungle.”
Poitier picked up his first Oscar nomination for 1959’s “The Defiant Ones,” starring with Tony Curtis as two escaped criminals who must work together to elude the authorities. Four years later, he made history by taking home the Best Actor trophy for “Lilies of the Field,” starring as a former GI who helps a group of Catholic nuns build a new chapel.
See more reactions to Poitier’s passing below:
More to come…